A mother has launched legal action against an international airline for allegedly flying her five-year-old son to the wrong city unaccompanied – and then presenting her with another child in his place.

The mother’s five-year-old son somehow ended up on the wrong JetBlue flight. He was meant to fly home on JetBlue from Cibao International Airport in the Dominican Republic to JFK International in New York City, as an unaccompanied minor.

According to a report in the Consumerist, the boy’s family bought him an unaccompanied minor ticket, which placed responsibility on JetBlue staff to ensure the child safely reached his destination, where his mother was to pick him up.

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The mother, patiently waiting at JFK for her son to arrive, was shocked and horrified when JetBlue allegedly presented her with different child. After some confusion, the airline then said it had found her son near the baggage claim.

Joy turned to dismay when the boy near the baggage claim turned out to be yet another child, not her son.

The mother says she went through three stressful hours until JetBlue successfully located her son, who had somehow been flown over 300km away and was at Boston’s Logan International Airport.